While operating a locomotive, operators can become fatigued after extended periods in which they control the locomotive. In some locomotives, repetitive motions are required, which may tire the operator. Alternatively, some locomotives may require very little operator movement, which can result in operator drowsiness. In either situation, the operator's concentration may be impaired and/or his/her attentiveness may wane. Such a dulling of concentration or attentiveness may result in improper machine control, delayed machine control, or a lack of machine control.
In order to combat operator fatigue in locomotives, systems and methods for alerting the operator and/or combating fatigue are used. Such systems may monitor locomotive operations and/or operations of the user and subsequently provide feedback to the operator based on the monitoring. Operator fatigue monitoring systems may observe visual characteristics of the operator or they may evaluate operator fatigue based on operator input to the locomotive controls. However, over time, the operator can become accustomed to providing such repetitive input and, thusly, this may not fully evaluate operator fatigue.
To combat this issue, further developments have been made in operator fatigue monitoring and alerting systems, such as the systems and methods described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/820,281 (“Operator Fatigue Monitoring System”). The '281 application discloses systems and methods for monitoring fatigue of an operator of a machine, wherein scanning devices are used to scan for recognized characteristics of the operator (e.g., facial indications associated with fatigue). If fatigue is detected based on input from the scanning devices, warnings may be made to the operator or braking of the machine may commence.
While the systems and methods of the '281 application do present advances in operator fatigue monitoring, additional components may be utilized to more accurately detect fatigue in a locomotive operator. Therefore, locomotives utilizing systems and methods for operator fatigue monitoring, which include input from an operator health monitoring device, are desired.